In an exercise in self-deprecation, Hydro-Québec introduced two costumed directors who explained how lengthy and complex onboarding new customers can be, much to their dismay. Radio-Canada, which obtained the internal video, showed it to customers who were waiting for power or had been waiting for more than a year. They don’t think it’s funny.
This is the case of Joanie Fillion and her partner, who waited 15 months for Hydro-Québec to connect their new home in Senneterre in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Last February, when the couple had to heat themselves with a wood stove while waiting for electricity, the state-owned company shared the video in question with its employees, titled “Hydro’s 12 jobs.”
In the 5-minute production, two directors dressed as fishermen, filmed in front of a green screen, list the steps that customers waiting for a connection may have to go through: the master electrician’s permit request (sometimes by fax), customer service, qualification services, Shared use, execution of works, engineering, vegetation, management of liabilities, including commercial services.
– Approximately how long will it take me?
– Where do you live?
– Laurentians.
– My God, do you have a wood stove?
– Yes why?
– Well, I think you will need it this winter. We have so many requests.
Listen, Serge, from a customer perspective, I find it quite complicated to do business with you. It looks like there is a lot of Hydro-Québec in the same Hydro-Québec.
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“I find it a bit unfortunate,” reacts Joanie Fillion, who we showed the video to. There was nothing strange about her situation, she said. It was just a never-ending story.
She has the impression that Hydro-Québec laughs at the difficulties they have experienced without understanding them.
I laughed yellow. […] I feel like they’re making little jokes among themselves: “Hahaha, people are crying.”
This is nonsense […] This is ridiculous, says Ghyslain Octeau-Piché, a real estate developer who is developing the Versailles Estate residential project in Saint-Côme in Lanaudière.
Hydro-Québec had promised its company, the Sierra Group, a connection in January 2023. The latter is still pending and construction must therefore be stopped.
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Ghyslain Octeau-Piché, real estate developer at Sierra Group, listens to the Hydro-Québec video at the construction site of a house awaiting connection.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Thomas Gerbet
“There is no better video to describe what Hydro-Québec is,” he said. That’s exactly it: everyone is throwing the ball. It’s so hard to get answers.
They themselves laugh at how it works, at how administratively complicated it is. […] Where is our pride in having Hydro-Québec?
Hydro-Québec assures that the video was not intended to make fun of anyone at all. “This video was created in a somewhat playful way to set the table for a discussion about how to make things better for customers,” replies spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers.
Customer service is our priority. We are constantly striving to improve the way we do things.
Lots of requests and lots of delays
The state-owned company explains that the number of connection requests is increasing, an extremely high volume that is causing delays. For files that require technical work, the average wait time is 12 to 18 months.
In 2022, Hydro-Québec received more than 44,000 requests for works requiring technical work (connections and others) and 15,000 requests for simple connections that will be completed in two weeks.
There are major projects where we have to build a new network, expand the network and put up new masts, explains Caroline Des Rosiers.
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Construction site of a house on the Versailles estate in Saint-Côme, awaiting connection
Photo: Radio-Canada / Thomas Gerbet
Hydro-Québec says it has increased its workforce to respond to connection requests by increasing the number of contracts with external engineering firms and hiring more technicians who can carry out the work on site.
Where are these solutions? asks the promoter of Sierra Group. They’re not here anyway.
Hydro-Québec assures that the follow-up work for the Versailles settlement project will begin in the coming weeks, recalling that it is an important project that requires a lot of work.
Meanwhile, some buyers of homes under construction in Saint-Côme who thought they would take possession last summer are having to find temporary accommodation.